The Dominion WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. A NATIONAL ENTERPRISE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 46, 18 November 1925, Page 8

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1925. A NATIONAL ENTERPRISE

The great exhibition which was opened at Dunedin yesterday bv His Excellency the Governor-General is, as its name implies, much more than a local venture. It is a national enterprise on the grand scale and one that is capable in many ways of furthering the development of the Dominion and making it better known throughout the WOI For the initiative they have shown in this venture, and for the energy and determination with which they have given full and finished effect to plans that at first might have been thought over bold the Otago promoters of the exhibition are entitled to admiration and ’ungrudging praise. We very cordially wish them the success their efforts have so well deserved. • _ . . . As it stands, the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition admittedly outclasses very completely anything of the kmd previously organised either in this country or in Australia. In. its magnitude and scope, in the architectural excellence of its buildings, and in ’the variety of its displays it is worthy of the modern progress of the Dominion and of the world. . Such an exhibition may be expected to serve a many-sided educational purpose. 1 It will not only attract visitors from overseas and give the Dominion and its products of all kinds additional prominence in the lands from which these visitors hail, but .will have an excellent effect in making their own country and its industrial progress and possibilities better known to New Zealanders. Although the exhibition is of international, scope, the products of the Empire naturally preponderate in its displays. It will do much to emphasise the common sense and practical patriotism of buying New Zealand goods where these are obtainable, . and of preferring at all times Empire goods to those of foreign origin. It is r much to be regretted that the preparation of the North Island courts has been delayed, and that they were not completed for the opening yesterday. So far as Wellington is concerned, some of the provincial local bodies have been unwisely dilatory in making their contributions. With the exhibition actually open an end should at once be made of all such delays and hesitations. Bodies withholding' the contributions that are needed to put the Wellington court into final shape are foolishly wasting a golden opportunity. The exhibition undoubtedly will be a splendidly effective advertisement for the Dominion as a whole and for every part of the Dominion that makes good use of the opportunity thus offered. No district can afford to make less than its full contribution to the-total enterprise. ..... In the opening ceremony yesterday there was an initial triumph most worthily earned bv those who have promoted and launched a great national undertaking of which the whole Dominion must, be proud. There is every reason to believe that by the time the exhibition has run its course its promoters will have an even greater reward in the knowledge th(it they have done much to encourage, the arts of peace, to stimulate national development, and to facilitate an expansion of trade, more especially with Great Britain and other Empire countries.